...“It looks like the intent is to wipe the slate clean and replace the previous presidential permit with this new one,†Height Securities LLC analyst Katie Bays said. Keystone XL doesn’t need the changes to the supplemental environmental impact statement “because Trump invalidated that whole process and issued this new president permit.â€...
https://www.worldoil.com/news/2019/3/31/trump-issues-new-permit-for-keystone-xl-pipeline-circumventing-court-order...Unlike the earlier State Department permit, which was issued after a deep environmental analysis required under the National Environmental Policy Act, the new presidential permit is not directly tied to any such review. And the NEPA statute that generally compels environmental study of energy projects and major agency actions does not apply to the president.
Pipeline developers are generally required to receive presidential permits for border-crossing facilities. The State Department has been tasked with vetting permit applications for oil pipelines since 1968, when an executive order put the agency in charge.
But Trump still retains the authority to issue presidential permits himself, said the person, who asked for anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. And because Trump’s permit is not subject to environmental review requirements in federal law, it effectively restarts the process and undercuts the Montana lawsuit....
